A popular Oakland restaurant was gutted by fire early Wednesday, forcing the owners to close it indefinitely and leaving regulars without their favorite lakeside hangout.

Oakland firefighters were called to the Merritt Restaurant and Bakery at 203 East 18th St. at 2:45 a.m. and had the fire under control 50 minutes later, officials said. The fire started in a first-floor storage room and spread to second-story offices, said Coy Justice, a battalion chief with the Oakland Fire Department.

"We stopped it from going from the rear all the way up through to the front of the restaurant," Justice said. The cause of the blaze was under investigation.

Larry Lee, 75, a retired quality-control worker, has eaten breakfast at Merritt almost every morning for the last 30 years.

"You meet a lot of people, you see a lot of the same people when you come in," he said. "I used to be a bacon-and-eggs man, but when you get older you have to switch to oatmeal. The chicken was good sometimes, though."

The restaurant has been a popular hangout spot since it opened less than a block from Lake Merritt in 1952. In 2009 and 2010, the City Council poured $358,000 into the business to keep it from closing, saying its 55 jobs were worth saving. At the time, the city auditor said the restaurant was $800,000 in the hole.

Fred Leonard, 80, drove all the way from San Mateo to meet with old Berkeley High School classmates on Wednesday, only to find the restaurant closed. The group has been meeting at Merritt every few weeks for almost four years, Leonard said.

"They all knew, but they must not have thought to call me," Leonard said, chuckling. "I was going to convince one of the guys that we should go on a fishing trip - look, I wore my outfit and everything."

"The electricity isn't on, so I haven't been able to turn on the lights and look," Griffis said. "But you can quote me on this - Merritt will reopen as soon as the city of Oakland gives us the green light to do what we need to do."

Lee said he hopes that will be soon.

"This is going to be sad for a while," Lee said. "After 30 years, I'm going to have to start looking for another place to eat. I'm going to have to learn how to cook."